In today's fast paced society, setting aside time for exercise and workouts is increasingly difficult. Pressures from work, home, and extra curricular activities often take priority over spending time improving physical and mental heath.
In the pursuit of improved physical and mental conditioning, many have looked to exercise devices which can be used in the home or office and which allow use when time or weather conditions do not allow outdoor exercise or use of a fitness center. Many of these devices are large and cumbersome. They often require a large amount of floor space and they are often complicated and expensive. A need exists for a simple, low-cost device which can be used for exercise at work or home and can also be used as a stress-relief device.
A number of compact devices have been disclosed in the past for exercising of the hands, arms and torso. An example of such as device is a coil spring exerciser disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,776. This device has spaced inner and outer springs with handles attached to either end. U.S. Pat. No 5,022,648 discloses an aerobic wand with a movable rod to render a spring mechanism operable or inoperable. These and other spring exercise devices are characterized by having a single relaxed shape or position in which the device returns when an external bending force is removed. These devices also tend to be large and unwieldy.